When fishing, it is often desirable to keep the fish caught alive for an extended period of time, to preserve their freshness. Many devices for keeping fish alive while fishing are known.
A stringer is one way to lengthen the lives of caught fish. Fish may be attached to a device that is submerged in the water and attached to the boat. However, stringers can come untied from the boat, be knocked off with a canoe paddle, be lost to a motor, or cause the boat to tip, among other problems.
Another fishing device is a live well for inside the boat. For example, fish buckets are known and may include an inner and an outer cylinder having insulation between them. Likewise, rigid live wells are known for use in a boat that may have a cross section approximately equal to the cross section of a fishing boat. However, both of these devices are rigid and bulky, which is inconvenient for transporting and storing.
Often, fishing is combined with another popular pastime, canoeing. The above described storage devices are particularly inconvenient for use in a canoe because of their bulk and rigidity. Stability is of the utmost importance for objects placed within canoes. For containers filled with water and live fish, stability of the container is especially important to preserve the fish and prevent packs and other objects in the canoe from being soaked with water. The effect of the container on the canoe's stability is also important, because shifts in weight within a canoe can cause the canoe to tip over.
Ease in transport is also of considerable importance on canoe trips, such as camping canoe trips. Often a day's canoeing covers several lakes or streams interspersed with substantial portaging, during which all objects must be carried. Minimizing the number of additional objects to be carried is desirable. Stand alone containers are undesirable because they are bulky and heavy, thereby significantly complicating the portage. When not in use, these stand alone containers are difficult to store and will probably need to be carried separately.
Accordingly, the main objective of the present invention is to provide a device for storing and carrying live fish which solves these problems.